Offering a support person to parents who lose custody of their child: rapid review

Key message

Losing custody of a child is a traumatic experience for parents. Follow-up and guidance from a support person can be of great help. We conducted a rapid review of research on the provision of support persons for parents who have lost custody of a child. We searched the literature, selected studies, assessed the methodological limitations, extracted data, and grouped results according to the criteria of the Evidence-to-Decision framework (a framework used for decision-making).

We included four studies, all of which addressed various aspects related to the provision of a support person for parents who have lost custody of a child. Three studies were from Denmark and one from Sweden. The studies had varying methodological limitations. Our findings indicated that:

• Parents who received a support person reported increased well-being and quality of life, higher satisfaction, improved parenting skills, and better cooperation with child welfare services and foster homes.
• The limitation included delayed provision of a support person, insufficient support time, lack of parental involvement in decisions, and inadequate use of action plans.
• Parents appreciated the support persons’ emotional support, practical assistance, availability, and neutrality.
• The studies provided no information about resources.
• The support person arrangement may positively impact equity, including that parents with minority background may benefit from language- and cultural mediation.
• For the support person arrangement to be feasible, it is necessary with funding, a robust administrative structure, access to experienced support persons, and a flexible approach that can be adapted to diverse needs.

The provision of support persons for parents who have lost custody of a child appears to have a positive impact on the parents. The support person should be independent of child welfare services, and implementation requires certain adjustments. More evidence is necessary to be able to draw firm conclusions.